Girls hoops takes 5th place with late basket

PALM SPRINGS — After suffering its first setback of summer, the Burroughs girls basketball team bounced back to win its final two games of the Palm Springs tournament and capture fifth place. The Burros won four of their five tourney games to continue an impressive start to summer.

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By Anthony GentileSPORTS EDITOR

Ridgecrest Daily Independent - Ridgecrest, CA

By Anthony GentileSPORTS EDITOR

Posted Jun. 18, 2013 at 4:48 PM
Updated Jun 18, 2013 at 5:20 PM

By Anthony GentileSPORTS EDITOR

Posted Jun. 18, 2013 at 4:48 PM
Updated Jun 18, 2013 at 5:20 PM

PALM SPRINGS — After suffering its first setback of summer, the Burroughs girls basketball team bounced back to win its final two games of the Palm Springs tournament and capture fifth place. The Burros won four of their five tourney games to continue an impressive start to summer.

"They're coming along and they're playing well together – better than I thought at this point," said head coach Robert Campbell. "It was a good tournament with better teams than we face in Bakersfield – we got to play at a high level."

Burroughs concluded the three-day tournament with a dramatic 41-40 win over Hanford on Sunday afternoon. Aubrey Hayes made the go-ahead three-pointer with 12 seconds remaining – a shot that came after Alex Simmons rebounded a miss inside and kicked the ball out to the perimeter, where it was eventually dished to an open Hayes.

"They'd been calling 'Shooter, Shooter,' the entire game so I wasn't really open that much," said Hayes, who missed the shot that led to Simmons' rebound. "I went to the short corner, Alex passed it to Madison Felix after the rebound, she kicked it to me five feet away, and I shot it."

Following Hayes' shot, Burroughs held off Hanford and fought through confusion caused by the buzzer going off with 10 seconds left. A frantic final stretch ended with a Bullpups' miss as the buzzer correctly sounded.

"It was kind of a scatterbrained pick up," Hayes said. "They put up a shot from 10 feet away – and everyone's hearts kind of stopped for a second – but they missed it, which was awesome."

Hayes scored a team-high 17 points and added four rebounds in the win. Her game-winner came in the first late-game situation that Burroughs has faced during the summer, and didn't come off a set play because Hanford came out in zone.

"The last game could have gone either way and was fun to watch," Campbell said. "It was good to see the kids get rewarded for not panicking and not giving up."

Madison Schiller scored eight points in the fifth-place game, and Simmons had seven points, four rebounds and four assists. Hayes, Simmons and Schiller were named to the all-tournament team.

"They're learning how to play together and they really hustle and play hard all the time," Campbell said about the backcourt trio. "I've talked to Alex and Aubrey about taking on leadership roles, and they've responded well."

In the quarterfinals on Saturday, cold shooting sank Burroughs against Westminster. The Burros fell behind by double digits early and struggled to hit shots throughout the game in a 31-25 loss.

The Burros cut Westminster's lead to one in the fourth quarter, but the Lions hit consecutive three-pointers in the closing minutes to stretch their lead and put the game away. Schiller scored nine points in the loss and Talia Forsythe had four points and eight rebounds.

Page 2 of 2 - Hours after its first defeat of the summer, Burroughs bounced back on Saturday night with a 48-22 win over Rancho Buena Vista. Hayes led the team with 15 points to go along with four steals, Schiller had 14 points and five rebounds and Forsythe finished with eight points and eight rebounds as the Burros rolled to victory.

"We were really tired, but we played well," Campbell said. "We shot the ball well and played inside-outside."

Allie Sliva had a team-high five steals against the Longhorns, and Simmons dished out five assists. Burroughs finished 4-1 in the tournament, the most wins the team has notched in Palm Springs.

"We're all on the same page as a team," Hayes said. "We're still getting there and it's working out. It's together like it should be."

Currently 12-1 overall in the summer, Burroughs returns to the court Wednesday for a pair of Bakersfield summer league games. The Burros head to San Diego this weekend for a tournament at Point Loma Nazarene.